The Mayors

The Chicago Political Tradition, fourth edition

Edited by Paul M. Green and Melvin G. Holli

Publication Year: 2013

Originally released in 1987, The Mayors: The Chicago Political Tradition gathered some of the finest minds in political thought to provide shrewd analysis of Chicago’s mayors and their administrations. Twenty-five years later, this fourth edition continues to illuminate the careers of some of Chicago’s most respected, forceful, and even notorious mayors, leaders whose lives were often as vibrant and eclectic as the city they served. In addition to chapters on the individual mayors—including a new chapter on Rahm Emanuel, enhanced by an expert explanation of the current state of the city’s budget by Laurence Msall, president of the Civic Federation—this new edition offers an insightful overview of the Chicago mayoral tradition throughout the city’s history; rankings of the mayors evaluated on their leadership and political qualities; an appendix of Chicago’s mayors and their years of service; and additional updated materials.

Chicago’s mayoral history is one of corruption and reform, scandal and ambition. This well-researched volume, more relevant than ever twenty-five years after its first edition, presents an intriguing and informative glimpse into the fascinating lives and legacies of Chicago’s most influential leaders.

Copyright

Contents

Plates

Preface to the Fourth Edition

Twenty-six years ago, The Mayors was first published. Chicago was under
the leadership of its first African American mayor, Harold Washington, and
the city was suffering from the racially divisive "council wars." This updated
fourth edition comes out after Chicagoans have elected their first Jewish mayor,...

Preface to the First Edition

This book was conceived as an effort to provide a political road map for
the past century, charting where Chicago has been with its principal executive
office, the mayoralty and its leading occupants, and where it may be going in
the future. We have omitted some of the lesser mayors who served in the period...

1. Joseph Medill: Chicago's First Modern Mayor

Joseph Medill is not often remembered for his term as Chicago's first chief
executive after the Great Fire of 1871, despite the historical importance of his
regime. Medill's years as mayor were largely overshadowed by his other occupations.
For most of the second half of the nineteenth century, Medill ran...

2. Carter H. Harrison II: The Politics of Balance

For a man who served five terms as mayor of Chicago, a man whose father
before him had also served five terms, one who lived on well into his nineties,
and who wrote not one but two autobiographies, Carter H. Harrison II
is remarkably little known or remembered in Chicago. No. monuments or memorials...

3. Edward F. Dunne: The Limits of Municpal Reform

For two tumultuous years between Aprill905 and Aprill907, Chicago was
widely regarded as "the most radical city in America," one presided over by a
"socialist" mayor who loaded his administration with "long-haired friends and
short-haired women." The chief executive who evoked such furor was a fifty-two...

4. Fred A. Busse: A Silent Mayor in Turbulent Times

Mayor Fred A. Busse's political personality may be suggested by the fact that
during the entire mayoral campaign in 1907 he gave no speeches, made no
campaign appearances. This was due partially to circumstance. At the start of
the campaign, while returning to Chicago from Washington, Busse was seriously...

5. Big Bill Thompson: The "Model" Politician

The Honorable James E. Watson, Republican from Indiana, found himself
in impressive company. Fellow senators William Borah, Robert LaFollette, and
George Norris all were present, and, minding tradition, they consented to Watson's
request to insert a magazine article into. the Congressional Record. And so...

6. William E. Dever: A Chicago Political Fable

Once there was a mayor of Chicago named William E. Dever. He built great
public works, removed politics from the city schools, revitalized municipal
government, cut waste, and ran the gangsters out of town. Not once was there
even the hint of scandal in his administration. He became well-known throughout...

7. Anton J. Cermak: The Man and His Machine

Anton J. Cermak was Chicago's first and only foreign-born mayor. No man in
Chicago political history had a more controversial and complicated political career
than "Tony" Cermak. To some Cermak was a gruff bully who consorted
with mobsters and hooligans while others viewed him as a political genius and...

Gallery of Images

8. Edward J. Kelly: New Deal Machine Builder

For fourteen critical years spanning the Great Depression and Second World
War, Edward J. Kelly ruled Chicago's city hall and its Democratic party. At a
time when political machines were declining in most American cities, thereverse
was true of Chicago, where Ed Kelly, with the assistance of Pat Nash, not...

9. Martin H. Kennelly: The Mugwump and the Machine

He was a nice man. It is not the sort of thing one usually says about Chicago's
mayors, but the description suits Mayor Martin H. Kennelly. The incongruity
stems not from his personality, but rather from his accidental occupation of
city hall. Unlike those who clambered to the top of Chicago's political heap by...

10. Mayor Richard J. Daley and the Politics of Good Government

Richard J. Daley was Chicago's mayor from 1955 to 1976. His lasting legacy
and reputation are filled with political and governmental contradictions. To
some current political scientists he was "the last of the urban machine bosses";
a friendly biographer called him "an Irish warrior"; Time magazine in 1963...

11. Michael A. Bilandic: The Last of the Machine Regulars

Unlike most Chicago mayors, Michael Bilandic is most remembered for how
he entered and exited office and not for what he accomplished as the city's chief
executive. Under any circumstance, the mayor succeeding Richard J. Daley
would have found the task of governing the city difficult. Daley was Chicago,...

12. Jane M. Byrne: To Think the Unthinkable and Do the Undoable

When Jane M. Byrne won the Democratic Party's primary nomination for
mayor in February 1979 in a stunning upset over incumbent mayor Michael
Bilandic, a power surge of euphoria went through her. "I beat the whole god-·
damn Machine singlehanded," she uttered in an ecstatic moment.1 It had been...

13. Harold Washington: The Enigma of the Black Plitical Tradition

Mayor Harold Washington is described in a biographical sketch by Robert
McClory as "a remarkable man of paradoxes and enigmas."1 McClory, a former
reporter for the Chicago Defender, the principal black newspaper, certainly
knows his way around black political circles; but he admits that Washington...

14. Putting Harold to Rest

When Harold Washington was elected the first black mayor of Chicago in
April 1983, he declared, "The city will never be the same." He was right
then. But now he must be turning over in his grave in Chicago's old Oakwood
Cemetery. Since his death in November 1987, progressive politics has not been...

15. The Sawyer Saga: A Journalist, Who Just Happened to be the Mayor's Press Secretary, Speaks

This is not the voice of Acting Mayor Sawyer's press secretary speaking,
mind you, although there is the distinct possibility that you will hear it from
time to time later on. But rather, this is the opinion of a veteran Chicago
journalist who studied and covered Chicago politics for sixteen years before...

16. Richard M. Daley and the Politics of Addition

In 1983 Rich Daley, the Cook County state's attorney, suffered a bone-crushing
loss in Chicago's Democratic mayoral primary. This epic battle (called by
some the "Super Bowl of Chicago politics"), which pitted the incumbent
mayor, Jane Byrne (the city's first and only female mayor) against Congressman...

17. Rahm Emanuel: Beginning a New Mayoral Era in Chicago

In 2011, Rahm Emanuel was elected Chicago's first Jewish mayor. This
chapter will demonstrate how Emanuel and his campaign staff downplayed
not only religion but also race, municipal and governance experience, and the
candidate's lack of personal connection with large sections of the city. His campaign...

18. Ranking Chicago's Mayors: Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Greatest of Them All?--An Updated Poll

Who is number one? Who has been the best mayor in Chicago's history?
The age-old question was addressed in a new survey completed in fall 2002.
The poll asked Chicago experts in history and politics to rank all of Chicago's
mayors from the very first in 1837 down through the 2002 incumbent, Richard...

19. The Chicago Political Tradition: A Mayoral Retrospective

A review of Chicago's modern mayors reveals a simple fact: there is no one
way to win city hall. Some past Chicago mayors have been clever political
strategists who outfought and outsmarted their mayoral rivals; some have been
loyal party stalwarts who eased their -way to the top; others have been nontraditional...

Welcome to Project MUSE

Use the simple Search box at the top of the page or the Advanced Search linked from the top of the page to find book and journal content. Refine results with the filtering options on the left side of the Advanced Search page or on your search results page. Click the Browse box to see a selection of books and journals by: Research Area, Titles A-Z, Publisher, Books only, or Journals only.